Losing the Turn Track - Tile Distribution

I need to get rid of the turn track. The game already has 2 score tracks, and it's hard to remember to move the tile along that track. Also, with fixed turns there's no way for players to effect the end game, no way to speed it up or slow it down.

The clearest solution is to end the game after the Exploration Tiles run out (plus maybe once more around so everyone gets a chance to visit the Market one last time). But to do this I'm going to have to figure out how to shrink the number of tiles and keep them balanced between plant/animal.

Here are some possibilities from crunching the numbers, given a target of somewhere around 24-40 total tiles, 3 different kinds of plants, and 5-7 different kinds of animals (removing Birds and/or Squirrels). I'm also trying to increase the average value of individual plant tiles, to decrease the demand for them.

1. I could go with 3x of 7 different animals, plus 7x of 3 different plants for a total of 41 tiles.
2. I could go with 3x of 6 different animals, plus 6x of 3 different plants for a total of 36 tiles.
3. I could go with 2x of 6 different animals, plus 4x of 3 different plants for a total of 24 tiles.

My initial thought was 36 looks good, that's almost exactly half the current 70 tile board, and we go through half the stack in a game, right? But then I pulled out the board, eyeballed about how much of the 10x7 board we do actually fill, and it's really like a 5x5 box in the middle, so the 24 tiles is probably where I should start.

I'll venture some plant distributions for both 24 and 36 tiles anyway:

24 tile stack:

• 1x plant (value 3)
• 2x plant (value 2)
• 1x plant (value 1)

For each of Nuts, Herbs, and Berries.

36 tile stack:

• 2x plant (value 3)
• 3x plant (value 2)
• 1x plant (value 1)

Also for each of Nuts, Herbs, and Berries. I could just as easily have gone with 2 of each for the 36 tile stack.